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• Hudson, New Richmond voters say they want action on health care
• North Hudson concerned with development on village edge

Voters in the city of Hudson said overwhelmingly in a Nov. 4 advisory referendum that they want the Wisconsin Legislature to make affordable health care available to all state residents.

By a margin of 4,851 to 1,769, Hudson residents said lawmakers should enact legislation by Dec. 31, 2009, guaranteeing every Wisconsin resident affordable health care coverage with benefits that are substantially similar to those provided to state legislators.

Hudson's 73% approval of the question was similar to the support it received in a total of 16 cities and six counties across the state. In all, 411,361 Wisconsin residents voted yes on the question and 144,120 said no. The percentage breakdown was 74.1% to 25.9%.

Dane County, home to Wisconsin's capital city of Madison, was the largest governmental entity to hold a referendum on health care reform. Its residents supported the question 176,770 (73%) to 63,765 (27%).

The referendum question, worded identically in of the each 22 local governments, was promoted by Citizen Action of Wisconsin, a progressive advocacy organization supported by a host of labor unions and economic, social justice and environmental organizations.

In order to get the question on the ballot in each of the cities and counties, Citizen Action had to obtain the signatures of citizens equal to 15% of the votes cast in the last gubernatorial election.

In northwestern Wisconsin, the question also was on the ballot in the cities of Eau Claire, Menomonie, New Richmond and part of River Falls, and the counties of Polk and Washburn.

It won in a landside in all of those cities and counties, too.

New Richmond supported the question 2,923 (79%) to 779 (21%). It ran into the most resistance in Polk County, where voters nevertheless approved it 14,232 (66%) to 7,179 (34%).

See next week's Hudson Star-Observer for more on the story.

By Jon Echternacht

echter@rivertowns.net

North Hudson gave conditional approval for an extra-territorial request on a plot of land on the north eastern edge of the village Thursday evening with concerns about future development.

The request involves a deep 37.2-acre lot adjacent to Krattley Lane on the north and between Pheasant Trail and Miller Road in the town of Hudson

The proposal received prior approval from the village plan commission and engineer.

Jon Sonnentag of S&N Land Survey, Inc., Hudson, made the presentation on behalf of NWP Holdings, LLC of Hudson. He said there was no immediate plan for development but the revised survey allowed for access into the large lot from Krattley Lane that didn't exist before.

The board conditionally approved the measure by a 7-0 margin based on final approval by the town of Hudson and St. Croix County Planning and Zoning committee.

"It's reasonable to assume that the lot would be annexed by the village," at some time in the future, said President Larry Larsen.

For more information see the Nov. 13 edition of the Star-Observer.